Senator: PPP Pumped $4B Into KS Economy

A day after the new Paycheck Protection Program depleted its $349 billion allocation, Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said today he was hopeful Congress would move quickly to add more funding to help companies cash-strapped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It went quickly, but it turned out to be insufficient to meet demands,” he said during a conference call sponsored by the University of Kansas Health System. “The good news is that it’s working, and making  a difference.” The measure, part of a $2 trillion federal relief package passed March 31, had pumped $4 billion into the state’s economy, Moran said, and did so within 10 business days of its April 3 launch.

That response, he said, is “something you don’t always see from federal government, and it’s working pretty well.” In addition to futher funding for PPP, Moran said he continues to work on getting more testing materials to hospitals and other facilities in Kansas as efforts to control the spread of the virus continue.

He was joined by Lee Norman, the state’s top health official, and KU physicians Steven Stites and Dana Hawkinson. All three responded to questions about planned demonstrations Monday in Kansas City, Topeka, Jefferson City and in other states to protest local stay-at-home directives and selected business closures.

Addressing the prospect of massed gatherings in a time of social distancing, Stites succinctly summed up the medical community’s reaction in five words: “Bad choice, people. Bad choice.”

All three physicians also addressed testing dynamics in Kansas, especially the need for more supplies. Norman noted that the ferocity of cases in New York and other hot spots had diverted testing materials to the coasts, and reiterated his call for supply-chain improvements to meet the demand.

“It’s not like we’re hoarding supplies or selling them on the black market,” he said. “We’re using everything we get in the door.” He also said the state was adding 400 people to its contact-tracing efforts, interviewing people who test positive, their known contacts and anyone who might have been in contact with those, as well.

That, said Stites, “might be the best news I’ve heard all week.”

Stites and Hawkinson again thanked area residents for their diligence in reducing contact outside the home, practicing hand sanitation and other measures to stop the spread of the virus. They said it has helped reduce demand on area medical centers, and KU’s daily census showed 35 patients admitted who are being treated for the illness, roughly half of them in intensive care.

“If look at the rolling 3-day average for hospitalizations, that’s an encouraging trend,” Norman said. “Certainly, the beds aren’t as full as they used to be. Have we rounded the peak and gone to the back side? We’re not there yet, hence the governor’s stay-at-home extension to midnight May 3. But I’m optimistic–the modeling has been spot-on.”